lonestargrillz vertical cabinet disappointment

[Kaptain Kadian]

I am writing this because I am disappointed with my lonestargrillz vertical cabinet smoker and don't know what to do. I have only cooked on it a few times and have had issues with most of the cooks. My last cook I looked out at my cooked and noticed the firebox door had popped open and all the coals caught fire and I had runaway temps. The time before that, I had a massive grease fire. I called Chris and he recommended that I adjust the latch down and that seemed to help until the end of the cook today. I had pulled all the meat out and had gone inside to eat. I drained the water out of it and closed the intakes on it. I went out to check on something about 30 minutes later and noticed that the bottom door had popped open again. The temps were climbing and had gotten close to 400 degrees. I couldn't get the door to shut again and didn't want another grease fire, so I decided to use a fire extinguisher to put out the grease fire. It totally sucked. It took me hours to clean it all up. I can't leave it unattended at all now. I can't trust it to stay closed and not have runaway temps. My wife is super angry now. I sped that much money on a smoker and it almost burns down 3 times now. Despite the door problem, I am not sure what the best way to shut the thing down when I am done cooking is. If I shut the vents, it seems like it gets pressure built up in it and it pops the door open. If I open the vents and smoke stack, the temps just rise and gets really hot and burns up the grease and could take hours to cool down, and since I can't leave it unattended, I would be up all night paranoid about it catch on fire. I emailed Chris again, but not sure what he will do about it. Anyone else have a good idea on how to shut this thing down? Any other insulated cabinet cookers run into problems like this?

 

[revkab]

Could it just be that the door latch is either faulty or needs to be adjusted? Why not give Lonestar a call and talk it out with them?

 

[jbounds286]

i cant imagine chris would not fix the problem for u.....LSG seems to have pretty good customer service. i would def wait to hear from him and tell him u need to him to fix the problem because honestly it is unacceptable but i cant see him giving u any grief about it. im certain he will fix it for u!

 

[Bludawg]

Duct tape:caked:

 

[PigTamer]

I am not familiar with lone star, but at comps we pull the coals out after a cook and suffocate them in a closed ash can. My assassin cools down in 45 minutes.

 

[htrisna]

Kap, is this unit a recent build btw? Sorry you're having issues.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

I got it in February or March.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

Could it just be that the door latch is either faulty or needs to be adjusted? Why not give Lonestar a call and talk it out with them?

I did call and talk to him about it the 1st time it happened, that is when he told me to adjust the latch down. It is weird, as it it gets hotter, the door latches pop open. He told me that it could happen as it gets hotter. The adjustment was supposed to fix it. I did email him. I won't have a chance to call him for a while.

 

[tgstrang]

Like others said I'd bet LSG figures something out for ya. I've never talked or delt with them personally but the only thing that I've heard about their customer service is that its top notch as are the cookers they make. Hope it all works out, let us know how it goes.

 

[pjtexas1]

i would remove the charcoal basket when the cook is done and dump the remaining coals in your ash bucket. that will stop the grease fires. you could also put a pan on the the rack below the meat and catch all the drippings and that will also help stop the grease fire. sucks to have this issue and i have never heard of this before. also odd that chris was aware of this happening when it gets hot.

 

[kawracr]

I had this happen on my large cabinet after changing to the new style door seals. Check the little angle bracket that screws to the smoker that the latch catch attaches to. The one on mine cracked at the bend & with the door closed, the new seals would put outward pressure on the latch & the crack would spread open. The catch need to be at a parallel line with the smoker. If it is angled outward it will let the door pop back open. If it is angled inward (toward smoker) it will make the door hard to close.
After I figured out what was happening I removed the little angle bracket rolled out my trusty welder & put a spot weld on the bracket right at the angle & it works great now.
If you need picts & will go out & take some & try to post them.
It's definitely something to check. If you can get you door to close tug on the door & watch the angle bracket at the bend to see if you can see a crack.

 

[cheez59]

That is an awful lot of money for an obviously flawed product. Keep us posted on how they handle it.

 

[dwfisk]

Any chance you can shoot a closeup of the latch open & closed? Slam latches come in a few styles, I think the style LSG uses have a spring loaded latch handle and are "adjusted" by moving/shimming the small catch piece. I've prefer this style, they are quality hardware but do need to be set correclty. I like to set them "tight" when cool. Worst case you might need a replacement latch set. But no matter what LSG makes a quality product and everything I've ever heard suggests their customer service is top notch; I'd sure give them the chance to make it right. Best of luck getting this figured out.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

I will work on getting pictures of the latch. I will keep you guys updated as I find out more.

 

[oldbill]

Yeah, the steel in your cooker expands with high temps and if the latch isn't set right it may pop a door open. As dwfisk said though, LSG stands by their quality and I'll guarantee you that Chris Goodlander will exhaust every option to help you with the problem you're having.:wink:

 

[Untraceable]

Can't imagine a properly closed latch popping open. The refrigerator style latches do not like to be set "backwoods tight".

Out of control temps mean out of control air. I've seen some under the illusion that opening the cook chamber doesn't effect the firebox. Quick in and out when checking meats.

 

[GrillsGoneWild]

Some of the problem is the pressure built up in the cabinet. If you close off the inlet and outlets and then close the upper door, it will sometimes pop the lower latch and open the door to the firebox. This has happened to me. When shutting mine down, I take the meat out, close the doors and then close the inlet and outlets. I leave the water alone at that time. You will have time after you eat or even a little later to drain the water out and it will still be hot enough to dry up any other moisture in the pan.
I've had to adjust the catch on the bottom door a few times so far in a year, a couple of these while the cook was going on.
I would say get the latch secure enough where you can't slide a coat hanger rod through the seals. That should get you to where you need to be.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

Thank you for the suggestions. I spoke to Chris today and he still thinks the latch needs to be adjusted. He wants me to take a picture of it and send it to him to look at. It is currently raining cats and dogs here, so I can't take a picture yet. He offered for me to bring it to him and have them look at it and fix it. I live over 8 hours away and have no way of getting the 800 lbs smoker back down to him. I appreciate the offer, but not really realistic to think I could do that. I guess I will send him the pictures and go from there. I really didn't expect to have to be working on a smoker that almost cost 3 grand, but crap happens I guess. That whole Murphys law really applies to me and sucks.

 

[htrisna]

I'm sorry this happens to you brother. I really hope Chris is proactive in finding you a solution at all costs. I had issues with my pit when I got it 3 years ago, and he offers to credit me my movers cost to bring it back to him, but I live just 45 minutes away. He did fix the big issue.

The smaller design flaws, I just swallowed. This is probably why my pit design is no longer offered.

Yet I still like his clean works and root for them and about to drop another $13K on them. There's a whole facebook group that roots for them to do the right thing.

I really hope they're still the same LSG I came to love 3 years ago.

 

[longwayfromhome]

Some of the problem is the pressure built up in the cabinet. If you close off the inlet and outlets...

Just for my limited understanding... I understand in any sealed unit if you close the door you may pop something like the firebox door - that is pressure. The question I have is, why would you close the smoke stack? With the inlets and the doors closed, isn't O2 ingress effectively stopped, thereby achieving what you want which is to put the fire out when it uses up the remaining O2in the cabinet? Also, not saying that is the cure to the OP's question - just a side question.